NASA Probe Zapped by Saturn Moon's Static

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A spacecraft exploring the Saturn system was zapped by static
electricity sent out by one of the ringed wonder's many moons in
2005, a new study suggests.

In fact, scientists have found that the
Cassini spacecraft was "briefly bathed in a beam of
electrons" coming from the moon Hyperion's surface, NASA
officials said. No, this isn't proof of alien life: The particle
beam was likely generated by the odd, porous moon's exposure to
ultraviolet radiation from the sun and Saturn's magnetic field,
researchers said.

"It was rather like Cassini receiving a 200-volt electric shock
from Hyperion, even though they were over 2,000 kilometers [1,200
miles] apart at the time," Tom Nordheim, a doctoral candidate at
Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL), University College
London, said of the new finding in a statement.

The study presents some surprising results. Scientists studying
Saturn and its moons didn't think that the small, sponge-looking
moon
Hyperion could have any major interaction with the ringed
planet's magnetosphere.

Researchers have long known that static electricity is an
important phenomenon on
Earth's moon. However, this is the first time they have
confirmation of static at play on another cosmic body. Luckily,
the beam didn't seem to harm Cassini, but future robotic and
crewed missions should be wary of possible electric shocks from
bodies in the solar system, researchers said.

"Our observations show that this is also an important effect at
outer planet moons, and that we need to take this into account
when studying how these moons interact with their environment,"
Geraint Jones, a member of the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer
instrument team who helped supervise the study, said in the same
statement.

The $3.2 billion Cassini mission launched to space in 1997. The
probe arrived at Saturn in 2004 and has been orbiting the gas
giant ever since. Cassini is expected to continue studying Saturn
and its moons until 2017, when the spacecraft will end its
mission by intentionally plunging into the gas giant's
atmosphere.

The new study was published in the journal Geophysical Research
Letters.